disappointed*waves middle finger at the ass who hit-and-run on my parked car*
Which means, unfortunately, I have to give
writercon a miss this year. I know, I know. On my salary, you'd think it wouldn't be a problem, but I've sadly got to give the emphasis to not adding to my debt (while paying down what I do have). I've been steadily saving my pennies, but sadly my pennies have to go to the deductible for my car, and fronting money to rent a car while mine's in the shop.'Course, this means I've had to put off my kayaking fees and my first "boat plop into the water" until May. Even allowing the cleaning service I contracted for the summer (also studiously saved for over the past year so I can pay cash on the barrelhead), it's still not going to come close to what it would cost me to head off to
writercon.*kicks stupid hit-and-run driver for really trashing my financial plans for the summer*
The good news is that I've been so good about squirreling away money, I can at least pay to fix my car and pay my taxes (which is weirdly lower than what I paid last year despite my higher salary) with cold, hard cash.
The bad news is I've got to be a Responsible Adult about this.
And yeah, being an adult sucks, because it means prioritizing what fun thing you'd rather do because you don't want to wax up the credit card. I hate to say it, but kayaking wins because that's six months' worth of fun right there at a much lower cost.
Well, at least I'll get some real vacay time in June with the fam. We're heading up to Maine to go pester some puffins and visit Campobello Island for a couple of days. So that's something. (Expect cute bird pictures!)
So, yeah...it's really one of those things where I have to bow out of
writercon this year. Maybe two years from now I'll better be able to swing the expense. But this summer...*handwaves*...after going over my accounts I really had to accept that it wasn't going to happen this year. 